Bill O'Reily, Fox News Sued for Disparaging Female Accuser

05 December 2017

A woman who settled a sexual harassment complaint against former Fox News host Bill O'Reilly alleges in a new suit that he and the network breached their nondisparagement and confidentiality agreements after she was outed in a New York Timesstory about claims against O'Reilly.

If Fox News Channel thought it was finally past the wounds of Roger Ailes reign and Bill O'Reilly's behavior at the cable newer, a new lawsuit today kicked that notion to the curb.

Rachel Witlieb Bernstein, a former junior producer of Fox News and an alleged victim of O'Reilly, claims the former host of the "O'Reilly Factor" violated their settlement agreement in a harassment case by telling media outlets that she was a liar and an extortionist, The Washington Post reported.

"A History" author has time and again claimed that the harassment allegations that led to his ouster from the Fox News in April have no merit while adding that he resolved the matters privately just to protect his children.

The lawsuit, filed in NY federal court, accuses O'Reilly and Fox News of defamation and breach of contract stemming from a 2002 settlement between them and former Fox News producer Rachel Witlieb Bernstein. He mistreated Ms. Bernstein. Bernstein alleges that Fox News, through its parent company, 21st Century Fox, falsely told The Times that it had received no complaints to an anonymous company hotline because, she contends, there wasn't a hotline while she was employed there in 2002.

That line, and in addition other open proclamations, spoke to a break of his settlement manage Bernstein, she claims in Manhattan Federal Court. The exact amount she was paid is not known, but it was far less than the other settlements.

She went to HR and other organization administrators to gripe about him a few times.

Bernstein says the statement was false. "There is ample evidence that Fox News, with the complicity of top executives, enabled the abuse of women for many years then silenced them with non-disclosure agreements and non-disparagement clauses". "They should release all victims from their NDS and let the truth out".

The New York Times revealed in April that Bernstein left the system in the wake of documenting a protest about him "raging into the newsroom" and shouting at her. "The statement by Fox News also violated the Confidentiality Clause in the Agreement".